The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the government to take action against those involved in “forging” performance evaluation documents of former deputy inspector general Nawaraj Silwal who has been elected to the House of Representatives on the CPN-UML ticket in the recently held elections.

The apex court in its full text of the decision in a case related to appointment of the chief of Nepal Police has said there were discrepancies between performance evaluation reports presented by the Public Service Commission and petitioner Silwal and that a thorough investigation and action were required against those involved in “forging the documents”.

Silwal had first moved the SC on February 12 challenging the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government’s decision—on the same day—of promoting DIG Jay Bahadur Chand to the post of inspector general of Nepal Police. 

But on March 21, the SC quashed the government decision to appoint Chand as police chief. The apex court had also ordered the government to take into account seniority, merit and performance while promoting officials.

On the basis of the performance appraisal report submitted by Silwal, the bench had observed that “DIG Nawaraj Silwal has the highest marks” among the four contenders—Chand, Silwal, Prakash Aryal and Bam Bahadur Bhandari.

The decision was believed to have cleared the decks for Silwal to get the post of police chief. But a month later, the government on April 10 appointed Aryal as the new police chief following which Silwal again moved the SC only to have his petition quashed. 

The Dahal-led government had appointed Aryal as chief of Nepal Police, saying the decision was taken after reviewing the marks obtained by the four contenders “in the last four years based on their performance, qualification, seniority and prize, among others”. The apex court said the decision was lawful. 

After failing to get promotion to the post of police chief, Silwal resigned from the security force and joined the UML. He then went on to win a seat in the House of Representatives from Lalitpur-1. 

Silwal in his petition had argued that “there have been irregularities during the review of work performance reports” of the four contenders.

He had claimed that a review panel had deducted two points from his score sheet to promote Aryal to the post of IGP. 

Meanwhile, the apex court has also ordered the Nepal Bar Council to take action against advocate Kapil Dev Dhakal for filing a writ on behalf of Silwal, saying seeking Silwal’s promotion defied the principle of public concern. 

When asked about the apex court’ full text, the cop-turned-politician Silwal said the information about the performance appraisal reports “were leaked through different online portals” which were used by his lawyer as reference materials. 

“We have also demanded an investigation into the leakage of such highly secret documents,” said the newly elected parliamentarian.

Advocate Ram Narayan Bidari, also a former lawmaker, said the apex court though has not ordered the government to take action Silwal “because it is the government’s responsibility to find out who was involved in the forgery”, the full text does indicate action against Silwal, for he had presented the documents for his personal benefit.